Engage in Policy Practice
Social workers must understand how policy affects society from a micro, mezzo, and macro level. Local, state, and federal policies, legislations, and/or laws can impact how I serve my clients. I will to continue to engage with policies to ensure that my service delivery is expressed through a anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and rights-based lens. I understand that policy practices such as advocating for social justice to impact policy change and developing policy and/or advocacy plans are an essential component to being an advanced generalist social worker.
Practice Behaviors:
5A- Advocate with and inform stakeholders to impact policy change
Field Evidence: There has been an vast increase of new to the country students between 2021 and 2023 in Calhoun High School. I have been referred many of these students to connect to community resources, address their concerns in Spanish, and inform them on the school policies. In response to the high demand, I decided to implement a monthly Newcomer Breakfast that focuses on connecting them to adults throughout the building and inform them on resources based on their specific interests. To advocate for this population, I sent out an email to key stakeholders such as the family engagement coordinators, ESOL (English to Speaker of Other Languages) teachers, and social workers to collaborate on this new program. This program will be proposed to impact policy change across the high school and middle school. Below is the email that initiated the first meeting to propose this program.
5B- Develop and implement a policy and advocacy plan
Course Evidence: In my policy class, my group and I worked on a policy and advocacy action plan to promote inclusion and prevent expulsion in pre-k through second grade. The Promote Inclusion, Prevent Expulsion campaign was created to address Tennessee SB 2173/HB 2258 and promote the addition of three amendments to secure the future and well-being of grade school children. An advocacy plan was developed to implement the addition of the suggested amendments. The advocacy strategies of this campaign focused on motivating legislators to take action, maintaining communication with communities, and informing the target population with comprehensible data.
To view this Advocacy Plan, refer to pages 20-31.
Skills Used: I used research, communication, collaboration, and organization to fulfill this competency.
Knowledge Used: Specific information from Georgia’s Department of Education, Calhoun City Schools Handbook, literature reviews on the Bilingual Education Act, concepts from the course: School Social Work Emphasis I & II.
Values Present: Competence, integrity, importance of human relationships, dignity and worth of a person.
Cognitive Process Used: For these tasks, I organized, discussed, and explained information to fulfill the learning activities.
Affective Process Used: For these tasks, I compared and revised the affects of the policies in the learning activities.
Theoretical Foundation Used: I used the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis to fulfill this competency. The more passionate we are about a topic then we will become more motivated to continue. I found this to be true when working with the newcomers because I can relate to being challenged in a new environment. The policy advocacy plan was another way I expressed this theory. My group and I are passionate about promoting justice among young children.